Mixer announced that it will be updating its partnership requirements, which will go into effect on July 24th. The minimum metrics are now: Account Age – 2+ months, Followers – 2,000 +, Streams per month – 12 or more days, Hours Streamed per month – 24 or more hours, and of course following Terms of Service and User Rules of Conduct. The previous requirements were allegedly criticised for being too arbitrary and did not take into consideration the vast differences between content types. But in addition to the metrics, all applications also have to meet the ‘Quality’ standards which focus on Professionalism, Uniqueness, and Community Building. Whether this will result in an increase or a decrease in successful partner applications, well we will just have to wait and see.

TennoCon 2018 was held in London, Ontario on July 7th, resulting in a plethora of Warframe fans congregating to meet the devs as well as each other. TennoCon usually features a major announcement or two, and Digital Extremes certainly did not disappoint the crowd this year. One of the biggest announcements was that Warframe is coming to the Nintendo Switch, and considering that Panic Button (the team that ported Doom, Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, and Rocket League) are assisting with the development, you can expect the port to be highly polished. Fans of the lore and cinematic quests will also be delighted to learn that the next installment is entitled: The New War.

Apple has launched their new 2018 MacBook Pro models, featuring performance levels that content creators will greatly appreciate. Available in both 13 and 15-inch sizes, each model features True Tone displays as well as the Apple T2 chip; finally bringing the ‘Hey Siri’ feature to the MacBook Pro. Whilst the 13-inch model can be configured with an i7 Coffee Lake CPU, up to 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and Intel Iris Plus 655 graphics, which is impressive for such a small form factor; those seeking more horsepower will likely have their eyes on the 15-inch model. Available with a 6-core i9 CPU (featuring Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz), up to 32GB of DDR4, and Radeon Pro graphics.

Code Vein, the upcoming action role-playing game from Bandai Namco, will not be releasing in September as planned. According to Eric Hartness, Code Vein has been pushed to 2019 in order to further refine its gameplay in an effort to exceed the expectations that fans already have of the title. The decision to delay the game has allegedly been based on the feedback they have received over the last few months. Code Vein draws heavy inspiration from Dark Souls, but features an anime-styled world and the main character is ‘vampire-like’; but will it be as challenging?

According to The Verge, Microsoft is preparing to add Dolby Vision support to its Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles. The addition will mean Microsoft’s consoles join the Apple TV 4K and Google’s Chromecast Ultra as the only streaming devices that currently support both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Dolby Vision is widely considered to be more superior to the current HDR10 support found on the Xbox One. Dolby Vision adjusts the brightness and color of scenes with metadata, and supports up to a 12-bit color depth and higher peak brightness targets than HDR10

The ArenaNet debacle has been one of the most talked about subjects on social media as of late. Former Guild Wars 2 narrative designer Jessica Price was fired from ArenaNet last week after responding to a content creator partner on social media. Opinion on whether the exchange was acceptable or not is greatly divided, with many claiming that it was a clear case of a female dev being harassed and being subjected to ‘mansplaining.’ Jessica has spoken out about her dismissal in a lengthy Twitter thread, criticising the way her firing was announced, a process she described as ‘an escalation’ of the situation and an ‘active solicitation of harassment.’

About JungleDrums:

JungleDrums is a weekly news show run by Scholarly Gamers’ Content Coordinator, AcuteJungle66. Topics discussed in the show focus heavily on gaming, highlights, streams, and tech, but will typically hover around hot-button topics of the week. Joining AcuteJungle66 are a rotating selection of guests, ranging from friends and those interested in the topic at hand, fellow Scholarly Gamers, or members of raiding parties from gaming staples of his such as Destiny 2, The Division,Rainbow Six Siege, or Monster Hunter: World

AcuteJungle66 has been dabbling with tech ever since he tried improving the tape deck of his Commodore 64 back in the '80s. Tech and Gaming have both been interests of his for several decades, but he also enjoys the great outdoors as often as he can.
As a proud Military Veteran who spent much of his life on 3 different continents, he is quite content being back home in Scotland; where he enjoys a much 'quieter' life these days.

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With Scholarly Gamers, our team hopes to deliver a reporting platform above and beyond the standard set forth by loads of other media sources. We look to bring about critical thought and examination to a number of themes, technologies, implications, and more when it comes to the games that we share a passion for.